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savvylit 's review for:
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories
by Mariana Enríquez
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am a big fan of short story collections, in general. However - and this seems to be the nature of the form - many short stories often leave me wanting more; there's a sense of incompleteness when they're over. As someone who has only dabbled in writing fiction of my own, I know that a satisfying ending is the worst (and hardest!) part. That's why I was ultimately blown away by A Sunny Place for Shady People - Enriquez has achieved a collection of twelve stories that are each perfectly complete.
Now, onto the content of the stories themselves. In A Sunny Place for Shady People, readers are treated to a variety of scares that range from the mildly unsettling to the downright terrifying. Each scare is based in the paranormal yet reflects a terror that is all too real-world: loss, mortality, colonization, murder, family secrets, greed, sexual assault, addiction, aging, guilt, and disgust. In Night Birds, a young (un)dead girl worships her older sister's world of make believe. In Face of Disgrace, a woman inherits a disturbing maternal legacy from a mother that she hated. In Hyena Hymns, a couple accidentally enters a torturous dimension while exploring a mansion in ruins. In the titular story, a woman returns to the site of her grief and spends time with a cult that communes with a famous dead woman. In A Local Artist, a couple escapes to the countryside to seek tranquility but what they find instead is a gradually escalating trap.
Thank you so much to @netgalley, @hogarthbooks, and @marianaenriquez1973 for the advanced reader copy of A Sunny Place for Shady People in exchange for my honest review! As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
A Sunny Place for Shady People is out now and can be found in a bookstore or library near you! What are you waiting for?
Now, onto the content of the stories themselves. In A Sunny Place for Shady People, readers are treated to a variety of scares that range from the mildly unsettling to the downright terrifying. Each scare is based in the paranormal yet reflects a terror that is all too real-world: loss, mortality, colonization, murder, family secrets, greed, sexual assault, addiction, aging, guilt, and disgust. In Night Birds, a young (un)dead girl worships her older sister's world of make believe. In Face of Disgrace, a woman inherits a disturbing maternal legacy from a mother that she hated. In Hyena Hymns, a couple accidentally enters a torturous dimension while exploring a mansion in ruins. In the titular story, a woman returns to the site of her grief and spends time with a cult that communes with a famous dead woman. In A Local Artist, a couple escapes to the countryside to seek tranquility but what they find instead is a gradually escalating trap.
Thank you so much to @netgalley, @hogarthbooks, and @marianaenriquez1973 for the advanced reader copy of A Sunny Place for Shady People in exchange for my honest review! As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
A Sunny Place for Shady People is out now and can be found in a bookstore or library near you! What are you waiting for?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder